The head of Delaware’s main agency addressing problem gambling says the pandemic has worsened gambling problems due to an increase in online gaming, particularly among younger players.
“People are left to their own devices during the lockdown, and many people have been engaging in technology and different things that they never did before to pass the time of day,” said Arlene Simon, executive director of the Delaware Council on Gambling Problems, in an interview with Delaware radio station WDEL. “So there has been an explosion in popularity of online gaming and gambling.”
She said younger people are particularly vulnerable because they grew up in the digital age. “Particularly among the younger folk and the millennials, these are people who really know how to access online activities, and are more comfortable doing things online, than they are going into, say, a casino or a poker game or something of that nature,” Simon said. “And so we are finding a lot in the younger age groups that are having this problem.”
Simon added that the speed of internet play also contributes to the problem. “For somebody who is interested in gambling, speed is a strong factor. They don’t have to wait to get resolved,” she said to Peter MacArthur on WDEL’s DelAWARE. “Online gambling is very quick. It’s the same reason people buy scratch-off tickets, because they get an instantaneous result. And with online gaming, it’s so easy. If you have a credit card or a debit card, you use that and you don’t even think about how much money you’re spending or how much you’re putting on there, often until it’s too late.”
